DEVELOPING INSTRUCTIONAL

MATERIALS

Describe the designer’s role in materials development and instructional delivery. .

Describe factors that may cause revisions in media selections and delivery systems for a given instruction. .

Name and describe the components of an instructional package. .

List four categories of criteria for judging the appropriateness of existing instructional materials.

OBJECTIVES

When the Designer Is Also the Materials Developer and the Instructor

When the Designer Is Not the Instructor

THE DESIGNER’S ROLE IN MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT AND INSTRUCTIONAL

DELIVERY

In many instructional settings, the person who designs the instruction also develops materi-als and teaches students.

WHEN THE DESIGNER IS ALSO THE MATERIALS DEVELOPER AND THE INSTRUCTOR

a human resources generalist in a small com-pany may design, develop, and deliver all new employee orientation, benefits training, and “ soft skills” training. Teachers and

professors do their own lesson plans and syllabi, materials, and instruction, and professionals in all fields routinely

design, develop, and present their own workshops and in- service training.

EXAMPLE

In large companies with a significant training and development function, an instructional designer may work

with a team responsible for design, development, and implementation of training. Similar teams also exist in instructional design ( ID) consulting firms, personnel

training and development companies, and many universities. The functions represented on such a team are

usually manager, instructional designer, subject- matter expert, materials developer ( or coordinator), and evaluator.

WHEN THE DESIGNER IS NOT THE INSTRUCTOR

In a smaller ID setting, one individual may be responsible for more than one func-tion, while in a larger setting,

multiple individuals may be assigned to each function. The team would also interact regularly with a representative of

the internal or exter-nal client and sometimes with an instructor or instructional program manager. In ID teams it

is common for the manager to be a senior- level instructional designer and for the instructional designer also to be a materials developer or at least have working-

level knowledge of a variety of media formats.

CONT..

Availability of Existing Instructional Materials

Production and Implementation Constraints

Amount of Instructor Facilitation

THE DELIVERY SYSTEM AND MEDIA SELECTIONS

Sometimes existing materials are an attractive alternative to going through the development and production process.

AVAILABILITY OF EXISTING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Media formats and delivery systems that look expensive are expensive. Cutting production corners to save money will

usually not impact student learning, but it will impact attention and perceptions of relevance and authority.

PRODUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION CONSTRAINTS

The first steps in adoption of a new technol-ogy are usually attempts to replicate the features of the old technology;

thus, as we began using instructional television, computer software, or web- based instruction, we tried to replicate

features of the classroom experience for our students. Instructor facilitation is a particular feature of classroom

instruction that has implications for how we develop instructional materials.

AMOUNT OF INSTRUCTOR FACILITATION

Instructional Materials

Assessments

Course Management Information

COMPONENTS OF AN INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE

The instructional materials contain the content— either writ-ten, mediated, or facilitated by an instructor— that a student will use to achieve the objectives. This includes

materials for the major objectives and the terminal objective and any materials for enhancing memory and transfer. Instructional materials refer to any preexisting materials that are being incorporated, as well as to those

materials that will be specifically developed for the objectives.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

All instructional materials should be accompanied by objective tests or by product or performance assessments. These may include both a pretest and a posttest. You may decide that you do not wish to have the tests as a separate

component in the materials, pre-fering to have them appear as part of the instructor’s materials so they are not

available to students.

ASSESSMENTS

There often is a general description of the total package, typically called an instructor’s manual, that provides an overview of the materials and shows how they might be

incorporated into an overall learning sequence for students.

COURSE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

Rough Draft Materials

Rapid Prototyping

Materials Development Tools and Resources

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND FORMATIVE EVALUATION

We all know what the term rough draft means, because we have all written rough drafts of papers that have

subsequently been revised into a final form. Rough draft means about the same thing when applied to instructional materials, but it carries the additional meaning that the

product is developed in alternate, simpler, less- expensive media formats.

ROUGH DRAFT MATERIALS

The first strategy used in rapid prototyping is to go light on the early analysis steps of an instructional design model,

then develop prototype instructional materials rapidly, and use quick iterative cycles of formative evaluation and

revision to shape the final form of the materials. Rapid prototyping can be thought of as a series of informed,

successive approximations, emphasizing the word informed because this developmental approach relies absolutely on information gathered during tryouts to ensure the success

of the final product.

RAPID PROTOTYPING

The second strategy used in rapid prototyping is concurrent design and development; that is, much of the front- end analysis work is conducted while the first rough draft

materials are being developed. This might seem like getting the cart before the horse, but recall that rapid prototyping occurs primarily in high- tech, quickly changing learning

contexts.

RAPID PROTOTYPING

Production of mediated materials re-quires a whole set of skills, both artistic and technical, that can range from

simple word processing to converting materials for web- based delivery.

MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Some of your resources should be kept close at hand while writing materials. critical resources include the learner

analysis, the context analysis, and the instructional strategy documents. Constant reference to these documents while you work will keep your efforts targeted and help avoid introducing interesting— but extraneous— information.

Focus carefully on the conditions specified in the objectives as well as the characteristics and special needs of the

learners.

SUMMARY